The long-awaited movies based on JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit were given the green light on Saturday but no location was named amid an ongoing union threat to boycott the production in New Zealand.
The announcement by New Line Cinema and its parent company Warner Brothers confirmed Peter Jackson, who masterminded the multi-award-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy, as the director and said filming will begin next February.
A spokesman for New Line Cinema said no decision has been made yet on the location for the $500 million prequels to the Lord of the Rings but Warner Brothers president Alan Horn was emphatic Jackson would be at the helm.
Confirmation the two movies would go ahead came two days after New Zealand unions and filmmakers held “productive” talks on the row threatening The Hobbit but would not say if a boycott of the films had been lifted.
International actors’ unions slapped the ban on the production after Jackson refused to negotiate with NZ Actors Equity over minimum standards on the set, prompting the director to threaten to move the shoot from New Zealand.
The country’s stunning natural scenery was a key element in the look of the spectacular Lord of the Rings films. “There is no human being on the planet as qualified as Peter Jackson to direct these films,” Horn said in a statement.
—AFP